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What Worship Is It's not just Christians who worship. Everyone worships. Worship is the expression of delight and joy, like jumping to your feet when your favorite player scores, or telling your friend how much you enjoyed a movie.  C. S. Lewis said it well: "All enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise... we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment" (Reflections on the Psalms, pp.94-95).When we have joy in something, we love to praise it, because as we praise it, we enjoy it even more. That's worship. Who We Worship We worship God. Not any God. But God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible -- as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15). In Jesus we see who God is - His truth, goodness, power, sovereignty, mercy, compassion, wrath, and justice. But sin blinds us so we do not see God as He is. So we need God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts so we can see who He is (Eph 1:17-18). Not with our physical eyes. But with spiritual eyes. This is hard to explain if you haven't experienced it, but it's real. When we see who Jesus is, we find great joy in Him. And when we find great joy in Him, we love to praise Him, because as we praise Him, we have even more joy in Him. And when we can do this with others, we have even more joy in Him. That's worship. How We Worship Since worship starts with seeing who God is, we put great emphasis on truth. Truth is the fuel of worship. As Jesus said, worship must involve both spirit - feeling - and truth - of who God is (John 4:24). That's why music plays such a crucial role in worship, because music powerfully expresses both truth and feeling (Psa 96:1; Eph 5:19; Rev 5:9-10). So Sunday mornings we start with maybe 30 minutes of worshipping God with music. We use a band with guitars and drums, since that's the kind of music most people enjoy today. We do mostly contemporary songs but also some ancient hymns, and all of our songs are full of biblical truth about God. Some songs are loud and celebrative. Others are quiet and meditative. Some people stand. Others kneel. Some raise their hands. Others sit. There is both unity and freedom. Our longing is that God would meet us personally and powerfully and give us a fresh experience of Jesus' presence. But we don't pretend. On any given Sunday you might experience a lot, or just a little. That's true of all of us. But even a little of Jesus' presence is infinitely better than anything else. © 2007 Mercy Hill Church of San Jose Offices: 6455 Almaden Expressway Suite 207, San Jose, CA 95120 Phone: 408.997.9387 Fax: 408.997.6248 Email: Contact Form |
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